As I am practicing for google codejam 2012 right now, I came across the alien number problem google gave for practice. There are alot of problems out there and I am doing different ones for practicing but solving the google ones seems to be most efficient I think.
The Problem is described as follows:

The decimal numeral system is composed of ten digits, which we represent as “0123456789″ (the digits in a system are written from lowest to highest). Imagine you have discovered an alien numeral system composed of some number of digits, which may or may not be the same as those used in decimal. For example, if the alien numeral system were represented as “oF8″, then the numbers one through ten would be (F, 8, Fo, FF, F8, 8o, 8F, 88, Foo, FoF). We would like to be able to work with numbers in arbitrary alien systems. More generally, we want to be able to convert an arbitrary number that’s written in one alien system into a second alien system.

To get the work done, you do not need much code but you need some knowledge of conversion from one to another numeral system.
The easiest way to solve the problem is by using an intermediate value in a known language. I chose the decimal system.

I recently came across this article (http://pandodaily.com/2012/03/12/the-la-tech-scene-finally-moves-out-of-its-parents-basement/) which is mainly focussing on the Los Angeles Tech Scene. In the authors opinion the silicon valley is facing a competitive future. I absolutely agree with him except that it is not only LA taht is on the raise but also Germanies capital Berlin. Berlin hosts a lot of european startups, is a very good place to live for young, creative people and already have it’s “own” venture capital network.

What I find interesting most is the list of supporters Michael Carney has at the very end of his article:

Whenever I think of gaming, I think of board games, card game as well as computer and console games first. Most game involve more than just one character and even those who can be played on your own are more fun being played with a friend. Social interaction is a common element in almost all kinds of gaming, so it is obvious that social media should have a big impact on gaming.

Prism Casino took a look at Facebook user satisfaction scores to come up with a top ten list of favorite social games to compile an infographic. Casinos, hidden objects and role-playing games top the list of favorite styles, passing trivia games like “Trivial Pursuit,” word games like “Scrabble,” and strategy games like chess that are very popular offline. The “Scrabble”-style game “Words With Friends” is on there, but in terms of actual usage, “FarmVille,” “Mafia Wars” and “Bejeweled Blitz” remain the top three social games played in the US and UK.

Usually graffiti artist are recognizedas vandals disturbing the world clean look with their Art. They are not known for being the smartest folks. But this view may change in a few days.

David Choe paintings at Facebooks first headquarter may be woth north of $200M in a few days without being sold. How this works?

The Artist took stock for paintings at the company’s headquarters instead of cash. His payout may be $200 million by Facebook IPO. Some other investors, especially the early ones, may even make billions of dollars.

Taking stocks may be one of the smartest move in terms of early art valuation in history. Other than regular artists of his guild do, the Choe had a bright foresight or may he just was the lucky winner of a smart bet.

When Google went to market with its $1.67 billion I.P.O. in 2004, hundreds of people joined the millionaire ranks, including secretaries, a company masseuse and a company chef. This time you can also count in a modern-day renegade artist who uses to put up party pics of himself spending enormous amounts of money on alcohol on his facebook page. Just recently he promoted photos of a $40.000 bottle of alcohol; a single shot is $888, much more than I sent on drinks for a whole party crowd usualy

More than 14,000,000 songs, no ads, unlimited skips, still working outside the US. How does this sound to you? Awesome?

That’s Raditaz.com, a new pandora competitor that is providing a streaming music servic. It allows you to discover songs on the go, discover new music and it allows you to tag and share music that you like. It’s more or less a service for building your own radio stations. These stations play songs you like or just songs that fit in the same genre or whatever pattern.

Get seated, ready, steady.. GO. There is another annual hacking cup coming. I already pointed to the Facebook Hacker Cup a few days ago. Now it is time to announce that also Google is doing it’s annual contest in 2012.

I just came across a very new site called tubalr.com A few minutes after checking it out I was addicted. Tublar is absolutely and easy to use, clear design fully working pandora for youtube. It’s creator Cody Steward writes: “Tubalr allows you to effortlessly listen to a band’s or artist’s top YouTube videos without all the clutter YouTube brings.”

Facebook is starting its second (now annual) Facebook Hacker Cup. Get your coke, beer or even glas of redwine next to you, arrange some brain-food and get in a relaxed postion. There will be some code to be written in the next weeks. That’s a challenge all AI-Class Students shall be interested in.

If you are willing to submit your solutions to different hacking problems, you may qualify for the first of three online rounds. The competition commences with a 72-hour Qualification Round on January 20, 2012 at 4:00 PM PT and ends on January 23, 2012 at 4:00 PM PT. You will be presented with three problems and if you correctly solves at least one problem, you will advance to Online Round 1. All online Rounds will be occuring in January 2012 with world finals held at Facebook’s headquarters in California, registration started January 4, 2012.

Facebook will pay to fly and accommodate the top 25 hackers from the third online round out to their californian campus and there is more to win:

$5,000 USD and title as world champion to the top hacker
$2,000 for second place
$1,000 for third
$100 for fourth through 25th
Awesome t-shirts for the top 100 hackers coming out of the second online round

“Going viral”.. one of the most important term in marketing nowadays. Designers, Bloggers, Marketers and Entertainment producers are working hard to create viral content. Unfortunately, there is no death proof recipe for going viral. Voltierdigital.com now compile it’s research results into an awesome infographic called Understanding Viral Content Marketing.

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Check out the fantastic infographic below to learn more about what it takes to go viral.